Search Results: identity politics

'Lee and
Christine Rush are your average Ozzie couple, except that their teenage son Scott is on death row in Bali having been
convicted of being a hapless drug mule. It will not go down well on the streets of Jakarta
if Australians are baying for the blood of the Bali bombers one month
and then pleading to save our sons and daughters the next month.'

The Catch the Fire Ministries religious vilification case was used for political means by both Muslims and Christians. Deen's account discusses wider issues such as the global rise of Islamaphobia, John
Howard's identity politics and the Cronulla
Riots.

The Governor-General, Major-General Michael Jeffery, is mounting a defence of the place of the British monarchy in the Australian Constitution. On several occasions recently Jeffery has proclaimed a very conservative view of Australian constitutional arrangements.

Israel's 60th anniversary next week will be an occasion for celebration by Jews throughout the world. The formation of Israel in 1948 gave Jews renewed hope, but Palestinians remember it as a time of mourning. These conflicting narratives are reflected within the Australian context.

The secular media tends to frame Church politics as a tussle between progressive and conservative. If that perspective is true, both sides of the divide rely upon a shallow analysis of the cultural change that shaped Western society since the 1960s.

With the expiry of a five-year ban, former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar
Ibrahim today regains his freedom to contest a Malaysian general
election or internal party election. He is undoubtedly the darling of the foreign press, but many Malaysians doubt his commitment to multiculturalism.

The Unsual Life of Tristan Smith is an engaging if uncomfortable tale. But a closer reading reveals author Peter Carey as social critic. While themes of
colonialism, migration, and identity are explicit,
disability enters more subtly.

We think it is wrong for foreign states to impose the death penalty on Aussie drug traffickers and drug mules. But we apply different reasoning to non-Australians facing death at the hands of the state. The practical, hands on, Aussie approach often plays fast and loose with moral reasoning about what is right and wrong.

The Iraq situation is a lot more complex than a simple standoff between western democracy and political Islam. Until this is understood, a viable solution that takes Iraq towards genuine democracy and self government is impossible.

John Howard’s "relaxed and comfortable" approach to national life, then, was not simply a rejection of Paul Keating’s aggressive, deliberate reforms. It represented a vile pandering to our cultural inertia, an affirmation of our basest tendencies.

Makloube—which means 'upside down' in Arabic—refers to steaming hot cauliflower, eggplant and meat upended on a bed of rice. It's also a metaphor for the political reality in which ordinary Palestinians will be locked for many years to come.